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The experiences of Arab teachers in Jewish schools in Israel
Abstract
In this multiple case study, we explore the experiences of ten Palestinian Israeli and Arab teachers who teach Arabic culture and language in Jewish schools in Israel. Two themes are revealed in this inquiry. The first theme highlights the ambivalent message of teaching Arabic as the language of the ‘enemy’ and as a medium for peace building. The second theme clarifies how minority teachers navigate, by applying a narrative model, the tension between their national (Palestinian) and professional identities. The implications for teaching and teacher education in conflict-ridden societies are also discussed.
... Additionally, some of the teachers from the minority consider their work as potential means of social mobility (Erlich Ron et al., 2020). Nevertheless, these teachers admit their difficulties in negotiating their national identity, particularly in hegemonic memorial days and national events (Saada & Gross, 2019). Thus, the phenomenon of cross-cultural teaching is mainly inquired through the paradigm of teachers from the minority paving their way to general and social mobilities within the dominant majoritarian society. ...
... In the last decade, a new scholarship examines encounters between teachers and students of both sectors. Until now, the studies concentrate on situations in which teachers from the Arab minority group teach Jewish students who are members of the majority (Erlich Ron et al., 2020;Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019;Saada & Gross, 2019). Just a few studies examined the encounters of teachers of the Jewish majority group with Arab students at schools of the Arab minority. ...
... Although teachers who are members of the Arab minority are motivated to teach at Jewish schools due to instrumental, rather than ideological, reasons)Erlich Ron & Gindi, 2021), they might be stimulated by this pedagogical challenge. The scholarship suggests that these teachers might experience personal development as much as difficulties (Erlich Ron et al., 2020;Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019), particularly in regard to Jewish majority's memorial days and the need to avoid explicit identification with their national Palestinian group (Saada & Gross, 2019). ...
One of the methods of multicultural societies for advancing a shared society is cross-cultural teaching. Commonly, teachers from the majority group apply to teaching at the majority’s schools through the acculturation process. The current study, however, illuminates the understudied situation, in which teachers of the Jewish majority group in Israel teach at the Arab minority’s schools. Our findings indicate that these Jewish teachers are mostly motivated by their
ideology and moral values, mainly a yearning to bridge between two hostile societies. These teachers’ integration into the minority’s schools is challenging due to cultural differences, lack of familiarity with Arabic, and difficulties introducing informal pedagogy, that is not common in Arab schools, discipline problems among students, and a challenging national-political discourse.
... So far, the participation of Arab teachers in Jewish schools has been shown to be beneficial and successful (Gilat et al., 2020;Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019;Saada & Gross, 2019). For example, Agbariya et al. (2014) found that the social relationship between the Arab teachers and their peers transcended the boundaries of the school in contrast to Arab-Jewish social relations in other professional settings (such as high-tech companies), where the relations were found to be confined to the workplace. ...
... Similar to minority teachers around the world, AJs experience difficulties and challenges alongside their success. In several studies, AJs emphasized their sense of otherness during national holidays, such as Independence Day and Memorial Day (Hisherik et al., 2010;Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019;Saada & Gross, 2019). Within the highly militaristic Israeli society, Arab teachers who internalize power relations in Israeli society feel under constant scrutiny of their functioning and loyalty in society in general, and in schools in particular (Saada & Gross, 2019). ...
... In several studies, AJs emphasized their sense of otherness during national holidays, such as Independence Day and Memorial Day (Hisherik et al., 2010;Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019;Saada & Gross, 2019). Within the highly militaristic Israeli society, Arab teachers who internalize power relations in Israeli society feel under constant scrutiny of their functioning and loyalty in society in general, and in schools in particular (Saada & Gross, 2019). For example, Halabi (2017) found that Arab graduate students in a Jewish teaching college were satisfied with the attitude they had received in the college on a personal and social level, while consciously conceding expressions of their national identity that were distinct from that of Jewish peers and lecturers. ...
This mixed-methods study examined the experiences of belonging/otherness among Arab teachers in Israel. A group of boundary-crossing teachers: Arab teachers in Jewish schools (AJ; N = 57) was compared with Arab teachers teaching in their own community (AA; N = 103). We found that the AJ group had a multicultural orientation, unlike the AA group, who were community-orientated. These orientations are reflected in different otherness sources, different motivations for selecting a workplace, and differences in identity ratings. While professional and social sources promoted teachers' sense of belonging in the two groups, the source of AJs' sense of otherness was the national divide as opposed to community-oriented aspects in AAs. Selfefficacy ratings were high in both groups with a significant advantage for AJs, an unanticipated finding given that most of them were women, had attended teacher training colleges rather than universities , and were rarely homeroom teachers. Arab teachers' involvement in Jewish schools was partial with a low proportion of classroom educators or teachers in managerial roles. AJs tend to leave their national identity outside the school, and are not involved in political discourse or in the staffroom power relations. The phenomenon of integrating AJs is relatively new, and within a segregated education system that limits the opportunities for Jews and Arabs to meet, it can provide a viable, albeit limited, tool to inhibit prejudice and antagonism between Jews and Arabs.
... Several studies have explored the implications of cultural disparities between teachers and their students or colleagues, such as racial disparities (Amos, 2020;Cooper, 2003;Goldenberg, 2014;Hooks & Miskovic, 2011;Milner, 2005), religious disparities (Finefter-Rosenbluh & Perry-Hazan, 2018;Krakowski, 2008;Perry-Hazan, 2014), and disparities relating to immigration (Michael 2006) or national affiliation (Baratz, 2016;Saada & Gross, 2019;Sion, 2014). These studies help understand some of the benefits and challenges of cultural disparities between teachers and their students or colleagues. ...
... A benefit to students of these disparities is their exposure to diversity (Krakowski, 2008;Milner, 2005) and conflicting cultural narratives (Saada & Gross, 2019). Such exposure develops students' ability to engage in social perspective-taking (Finefter-Rosenbluh & Perry-Hazan, 2018). ...
... These conflicts derived mostly from practices of gender segregation, clashes between human rights and religious views in school's discourse and curriculum, religious limitations on teaching sensitive issues, obligation to actively participate in the schools' prayers, complying with the school's religious dress code, and the school's uncritical approach to Israeli political and social policies. In this respect, studies on Arab-Palestinian teachers working in Israeli Jewish schools shed light on the complexity of the conflicts between teachers' personal and professional identities (Baratz, 2016;Saada & Gross, 2019;Sion, 2014). To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to identify the challenges facing secular teachers working in religious schools, illustrating the interrelated religious, moral, and educational conflicts they encounter, which lay at the core of their identity. ...
This study explored the perceptions of 25 secular teachers employed in American, Australian, and Israeli Jewish religious schools regarding disparities between their secular identity and their school's religious habitus. It also examined the ways these teachers cope with such disparities. Findings suggest that teachers' challenges were anchored in their freedom of religion and conscience , educational credo, and framed organisational position. However, the teachers acknowledged student benefits such as students' exposure to diversity and support offered to those experiencing religious and identity conflict. Identified patterns of tea-chers' coping strategies included opposition, adaptation, and fence-sitting. We drew upon the literature on passing and everyday forms of resistance in schools having rigid public transcripts to explain these strategies' moral and emotional costs. The study's implications apply to other religious schools and educational settings characterised by rigid public transcripts of discipline and accountability policies that may conflict with teachers' identity and educational credo.
... Several studies exposed the complex position that requires the Arab teacher to employ multiple strategies of bargaining in order to achieve maximum personal gain Sion, 2014). Thus, the teachers seek to self-preserve and reduce possible sources of danger alongside making the most of the opportunities they have within the unequal power relations in Israel (Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019aSaada & Gross, 2019a. Arab teachers feel the ambivalent gaze of the Jewish hegemony viewing them as partners on the one hand as the enemy on the other (Saada & Gross, 2019a;Sion, 2014). ...
... Thus, the teachers seek to self-preserve and reduce possible sources of danger alongside making the most of the opportunities they have within the unequal power relations in Israel (Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019aSaada & Gross, 2019a. Arab teachers feel the ambivalent gaze of the Jewish hegemony viewing them as partners on the one hand as the enemy on the other (Saada & Gross, 2019a;Sion, 2014). Arab teachers feel under constant scrutiny of their functioning and loyalty in society in general and in organizations in particular, bargain simultaneously with both Jewish hegemony and their school . ...
... Arab teachers feel under constant scrutiny of their functioning and loyalty in society in general and in organizations in particular, bargain simultaneously with both Jewish hegemony and their school . Several studies have distinguished active and passive approaches by teachers (Cohen, 2019: Saada & Gross, 2019a. 'Passive teachers' rely mainly on contact to change students' attitudes, and silently ignore the subtle discrimination they endure, while 'active' teachers believe that contact should be accompanied by introduction of one's narrative and protest against discrimination of any sort (Saada & Gross, 2019a). ...
Arab teachers in Jewish schools (AJ) constitute a unique case of minority teachers. This mixed-methods study set out to examine the school experience of AJ (N = 101) in comparison with two groups: Arab teachers in Arab schools (AA; N = 76) and Jewish teachers in Jewish schools (JJ; N = 99). The questionnaire measured three aspects of the teachers’ experience: motivational, professional and ecological. AJ teachers reported lower levels of professional difficulties than the two same-culture groups. Among AJ, novice and experienced teachers reported similar levels of motivation, while among the other groups, novice teachers reported lower levels. AJ teachers’ answers to an open-ended question enriched the understanding of the positive experiences alongside the negative aspects that included some incidents of racism and microaggression. The findings support the benefit of contact to positive attitudes and tolerance. Nonetheless, questions arise regarding the processes that underlie these results.
... The third model is the shared-project model, involving projects that usually do not touch directly on sociopolitical issues (Maoz 2000) and the fourth is the theoretical learning model which teaches about the conflict, without necessarily including direct interethnic encounters (Erlich and Paul-Benjamin 2016). Intergroup theory -the source of the fifth modelemphasizes the macro and political elements of the encounter (Maoz 2011;Saada and Gross 2019). Also called confrontational theory, it emphasizes social rather than personal identities. ...
... First, Arab children mostly 'lead separate lives, both culturally and geographically' (Bash 1997: 130), a separation reproduced in public education. Second, power relations between the Arab minority and Jewish majority in Israel are asymmetrical in favour of the Jewish hegemony (Saada and Gross 2019;Salomon 2004). Third, there is a growing emphasis on Israel's Jewish rather than democratic identity (Salomon and Esawi 2009). ...
What is the right way to design interethnic educational encounters to promote a shared society in Israel? The challenge of bridging groups who speak different languages is magnified in the Israeli case because of the national conflict and linguistic asymmetry. This article examines a possible solution, a partly bilingual massive open online course (MOOC), developed by the authors and designed to maintain a balanced emphasis on students’ ethnic group identities, along with openness towards the Other. In this qualitative research, we explored the participants’ experiences of the MOOC and whether it promoted cross-cultural understanding.
... In recent years, the phenomenon of boundary-crossing teachers, namely teachers coming from a particular cultural background working in schools characterized by a different cultural background, has intensified in Israel (e.g., Gilat, Gindi & Sedawi-Massri, 2020;Saada & Gross, 2019). More specifically, it involves the integration of Arab teachers in Jewish schools, and the crossing of religious and ultra-Orthodox teachers into secular schools (Gindi & Erlich-Ron, 2021). ...
... Boundary-crossing teachers are especially important in Israel, a divided society across ethnic, national and religious lines, where the education system reflects the rifts in society as there are separate Arab, secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox streams (Saada & Gross, 2019). Research has shown that Israelis' attitudes toward boundary-crossing teachers are overall positive, but they are less positive among religious Jews (Gindi & Erlich Ron, 2020;Gindi, Gilat & Sagee, 2020). ...
Initial disruptions to a system can spread out to interrupt increasingly larger parts of that system, known as a ripple effect. The present study sought to examine whether intergroup violence affected attitudes toward tolerance as exemplified by attitudes toward boundary-crossing teachers. The main hypothesis was that after the May 2021 violence between Jews and Arabs in Israel, there would be a decrease in support for Jewish teachers in Arab schools and Arab teachers in Jewish schools. The study further sought to examine if there would be a decrease in support for secular teachers in ultra-Orthodox schools and vice versa (a ripple effect). 402 Jewish Israeli high-school students (grades 10-12) responded to a questionnaire in March 2021, and then again, a month after the May violence. The main hypothesis was partially supported, in that there was a decrease in the support for Arab teachers in Jewish schools across the board, and a decrease in the support for Jewish teachers in Arab schools among religious youth. The study provides modest support for a ripple effect demonstrated by a decrease in support for secular teachers in ultra-Orthodox schools among religious youth. In accordance with integrated threat theory, we suggest a phenomenon of retreating into one’s ingroup following violence, in this case rejecting the notion of interaction between Arabs and Jews, and then extending these walls to discard other forms of intergroup contact. We argue that such crises should be countered with comprehensive intercultural interventions rather than a circumscribed appeasement between groups.
... Israeli Arabs are what Kymlicka (1995) would classify as a national native minority that obtained citizenship in a process that began following Israel's War of Independence. For the Jewish majority, Israel is the realization of the Jewish people's right to self-determination in its historic homeland and an aspiration for the ingathering of exiles, whereas for the Arab minority, the establishment of Israel entails historic injustice, exclusion and alienation (Agbaria, 2018;Saada & Gross, 2019). From its establishment, Israel has declared that it will become a refuge for Jews around the world who wish to immigrate. ...
... In CPI management, Arab teachers in Jewish schools had significantly lower scores than other minority teachers in their willingness to engage in different strategies once a CPI discussion ensues. This should also be understood against the backdrop of the complex Jewish-Arab relations and the power relations between the Jewish hegemony and the Arab minority in Israel (Agbaria, 2018;Saada & Gross, 2019). ...
The importance of teachers holding discussions of controversial political issues (CPI) in class is commonly acknowledged, but teachers vary in their willingness to engage in such discussions. The aim of this study is to compare different groups of minority teachers with regards to their attitudes toward CPI. Questionnaires were obtained from 282 teachers belonging to five different minority-teacher groups in Israel. Their attitudes towards conducting discussions of CPI were examined in relation to self-efficacy, acculturation attitudes, and demographic variables. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that teachers’ pluralistic acculturation attitude was the most important predictor of attitudes toward CPI, followed by teachers’ social self-efficacy. Arab teachers scored lower than all other groups on organizational self-efficacy and exhibited the most integrationist approaches, while teachers of low incidence ethnic origin exhibited the most assimilationist approach. The research draws attention to the diversity of diversity- that different minority groups approach the issue of CPI depending on the nature of their relationship with the majority group, the size and political power of the minority group and its acculturation approach.
... The major argument for diversifying the teacher staff is that minority teachers may become role models for minority students and inspire them to pursue academic education (Auerbach, 2007;Guarino et al., 2006;Quiocho and Rios, 2000;Shipp, 1999). The phenomenon that will be examined in this paper is different, as boundary-crossing teaching in Israel is not encouraged for this reason but rather for promoting tolerance within the divided Israeli society (Jayusi and Bekerman, 2019;Saada and Gross, 2019). ...
... Similarly, two 2019 studies that employed interviews with Arab teachers in Jewish schools, found them to testify to the high satisfaction of all those involved. Boundary-crossing Arab teachers attested to having a good working relationship with principals, staff, students and parents and reported to have been able to reduce prejudice and foster common ground (Jayusi and Bekerman, 2019;Saada and Gross, 2019). ...
Purpose- Minority teachers is a growing phenomenon that is encouraged as part of a quest to diversify teaching staff. Among minority teachers, there exists a group of boundary-crossing teachers whose "otherness" contrasts with the different student population and/or staffroom composition. The study aims to examine parent, teacher and student attitudes toward teachers crossing two types of "borders" that are central to Israeli society: the Jewish-Arab rift and the religious-secular rift. Design/methodology/approach- A representative sample of 182 Jewish Israeli parents, 201 Jewish Israeli students grades 10-12 and 101 Jewish Israeli teachers completed questionnaires regarding their attitudes toward boundary-crossing teachers. Findings-The overall attitudes toward cross-boundary teaching were positive. Attitudes were found to be associated with political affiliation, religiosity and age. The more left-wing participants were, the less religious and older the more they supported boundary-crossing teaching. Students were significantly less supportive of teachers crossing the Jewish-Arab divide compared with adults. The attitudes toward boundary-crossing ultra-orthodox teachers in a secular school showed a distinct pattern, as it received support from all divides of the research participants. Social implications-The findings point to the vicious cycle of segregation in Israeli society whereby the lack of contact between Jews and Arabs leads to intergroup anxiety which in turns leads to less support in further contact through boundary-crossing teaching, especially among high school students. Originality/value-The minority teachers' literature often refers to the need to diversify the teaching staff or examines teachers and their relations with students. This study if the first to examine how other stakeholders' view the idea of minority teachers.
... The first study was conducted by Rajuan and Bekerman (2011) to examine what teachers working in the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools perceive as an appropriate school for multilingual education. Elaborating on theories of intergroup encounters that explicate the encounter between people from ethnically conflicted backgrounds, the second study carried out by Saada and Gross (2019) invited Palestinian Arab teachers in Jewish schools to narrate their experiences and challenges. ...
This study explored English language professors’ conceptualisation of peace in light of explicit theories of peace. The participants, 20 English language professors in the context of Iran, shared their ideas through interviews and personal documents. The data were hermeneutically analysed and two dominant themes were identified: the cultivation of critical being and transforming unequal power through de-centering dominant discourses, listening to muted voices, and expanding participatory processes. The participants called for critical pedagogy and a shift towards a multilingual-multicultural paradigm revolving around intercultural openness. The findings re-claimed criticality in peace practices in teaching and teacher education programmes.
... Palestinian identity and their professional identity (Saada & Gross, 2019). Sion (2014) found that Jewish teachers expect their Arab counterparts in the school to hide their Arab identity and as a result the latter group of teachers tends to feel lonely, isolated and vulnerable. ...
Purpose
The aim of the current study was to explore emotional closeness and emotional distance between Arab teachers who teach in the Jewish State Educational System and their Jewish counterparts in the school.
Design/methodology/approach
The research used semi-structured interviews with 16 Arab and Jewish teachers in Israel.
Findings
The authors identified patterns of emotional closeness and emotional distance among Arab and Jewish teachers, perception gaps among Jewish and Arab teachers and the factors affecting emotional closeness/distance among them. Empirical and practical implications are suggested.
Originality/value
The study sheds light on the emotional aspects of multicultural educational teams and workplaces and increases our understanding of the complexity of teacher emotion in multi-ethnic and multi-religious staffrooms.
... Other studies have pinpointed difficulties. Saada and Gross (2019) show that Arab teachers in Jewish schools were hesitant about expressing their national identity and wary of the militarized discourse in Jewish society. Similarly, Gindi and Erlich Ron (2019) found that Arab teachers engaged in bargaining over social and professional expectations. ...
Given the surplus of Arab teachers and the shortage of Jewish teachers in Israel, the government has adopted the policy of employing Arab teachers in Jewish schools, contrary to the dominant nationalistic agenda. We argue that this low-cost solution meets the criteria for disruptive innovation in that it flies under the radar and has the potential to proliferate and change the existing social order. Through surveys and interviews with boundary-crossing Arab teachers, this article finds that teachers circumvent power structures in three social fields. In the Arab community, work in Jewish schools helps teachers bypass nepotism and provides a new path for upward mobility. In the education system, boundary-crossing teachers disrupt segregation. And at the state level, this innovation may improve Jewish-Arab relations.
... The majority of both cultural groups live in separate localities that are nationally (Jewish or Arab) homogenous, although the extent and the form of residence segregation of the two groups have amended over time (Shwed, Shavit, Dellashi, & Ofek, 2014). The two groups also differ in terms of their spoken language (Hebrew and Arabic), religion as well as political and social status (Saada & Gross, 2019). The separation between the two groups is also implemented in terms of two separate K-12 educational systems. ...
The curiosity of Israeli educators from two separate educational systems (Jewish and Arab) was compared regarding five curiosity dimensions, types of curious people, and values that drive actions. Two assessment modes were employed (Likert-type and open-ended). The quantitative and qualitative analyses showed significant differences between the two groups on most measures, which were illustrated by authentic quotes from the participants. Inferences were drawn based on substantive culture-related explanations, some of which were qualified by response-style accounts. The paper concludes with implications for culturally-tailored professional development to enhance educator curiosity and their assessment for learning practice to nurture the curiosity and self-regulated learning of their students.
The following is a presentation of a conceptual approach to a study addressing the situation of displaced international teachers and their perception of language belonging. The targeted teachers are being trained to be able to (re-)enter into their professions as teachers in German schools in a current project “Lehrkräfte Plus” in
North Rhine Westfalia (NRW), Germany.
Spain’s public schools need Islamic religious education to prevent terrorism. This is because many children in Spain’s schools are Muslim, which means they need to be educated about Islamic religious ideas. This is why Spain passed a law for Islamic religious education in public schools. They also passed new legislation that emphasized adaght against Islamic terrorism. These laws gave teachers of Islamic Education a significant role in countering Islamic terrorist messages and preventing violent radicalization.
There are two main paradigms regarding political socialization. The early-years-of-life hypothesis emphasizes the importance of political socialization in the early years, while the life-long hypothesis argues that political socialization is shaped continuously throughout life. The literature on the topic concentrates on seminal events and their impact on political socialization. In this study, we examined these hypotheses in the unique context of Arab teachers in Jewish schools in Israel. The teachers spoke about the culture of silence about politics that characterized their childhood and their inhibitions regarding engaging in politics. Entering work in a predominantly Jewish environment highlighted the social mechanisms and minority–majority power relations that preserve Arab citizens’ political oppression. The teachers all indicated a process by which they become more politically aware, while their willingness to be politically active varies. The political dialogue between the Jewish and Arab teachers begins hesitantly but increases with time. The findings demonstrate political socialization as a life-long process that is shaped by everyday contact with the majority group and not only by historical/seminal events. It is demonstrated that schools cannot be sterilized from political influences, and the potential of Arab teachers in Jewish schools in defusing the polarization in Israeli society is emphasized.
Recently there has been a growing tendency among Israeli Arab teachers to work in Jewish schools. This trend has several sociopolitical and economic reasons but is generally viewed as a welcome development that should be encouraged. Based on interviews with ten Arab teachers in Jewish schools, this article seeks to delve into their living experience and understand their motivations and aspirations, as well as the obstacles they encounter. Its findings underscore two main obstacles that need to be surmounted: cultural differences and lower mastery of the Hebrew language, on the one hand, and the tension attending a different ethnic/national identity from that of the taught audience, on the other.
This mixed-methods study examined the experiences of belonging/otherness among Arab teachers in Israel. A group of boundary-crossing teachers, i.e., Arab teachers in Jewish schools (N = 57), was compared to a group of Arab teachers who work within their community (N =103). Our findings show that the Arab teachers in Jewish schools felt a multicultural orientation, unlike those who taught within their own community and who experienced an intra-community orientation. This orientation is reflected in the various sources of “otherness”, different motivations for selecting a workplace, and the sub-identity component ratings. While the sense of belonging is nourished by professional and social sources, which constitute the common good inside the teachers’ lounge, the sense of otherness among those who taught in Jewish schools stemmed from the national divide as opposed to the intra-community aspects among those teaching in their own
community. Self-efficacy ratings were high in both groups, with a significant advantage for Arab teachers in Jewish schools – which was a surprising finding in light of the demographic data. In a segregated education system that limits opportunities for Jews and Arabs to meet, Arab teachers in Jewish schools provides a viable, albeit limited,
alternative. The study provides encouraging data on border-crossing teachers’ experiences and indicates the need to continue to follow-up on this unique population.
Solidarity between the citizens of a country is both good and desirable, and public educational institutions are the clear site of education for such civil solidarity and its natural place is in Civics lessons. Nevertheless, this paper argues that it is impossible to educate for solidarity for all citizens in a liberal-democratic state when civic classes teach basic civil laws that exclude groups or minorities and expel them from the general civil population. Therefore, we can ask: What are the modes of action that are open to Civics teachers and other educators who are caught in this trap when trying to educate for solidarity? As a reply to this question and by borrowing ideas from Michel Foucault’s thought, this paper equips teachers with some guidelines for pedagogical resistance to the excluding wave, that enable strengthening an inclusive civil solidarity, and demonstrates the applicability of these guidelines in the Israeli reality.
Teacher leadership development receives considerable attention in many educational reforms across the globe. This article reports on a unique partnership in Jerusalem that brings Israeli and Palestinian educators together to cultivate teacher leaders who facilitate professional communities and support continual improvement in teaching and learning. The research design involves participatory action research and draws on theoretical frameworks of democratic education, productive professional discourse, and authentic intellectual work. Findings focus on the enhancement of multicultural training, increased depth of pedagogical discussions, and improvement in leading teacher learning communities. The conclusions consider the ways in which a few bridges are overcoming both real and perceived borders in a region of persisting cultural tension and conflict, as the teacher leaders and co-authors developed an emerging common understanding of a shared conception of professional practice across three languages, and a growing mutual respect for the ‘other’.
The Promise of Integrated and Multicultural Bilingual Education presents the results of a long-term ethnographic study of the integrated bilingual Palestinian-Jewish schools in Israel that offer a new educational option to two groups of Israelis--Palestinians and Jews--who have been in conflict for the last one hundred years. Their goal is to create egalitarian bilingual multicultural environments to facilitate the growth of youth who can acknowledge and respect "others" while maintaining loyalty to their respective cultural traditions. In this book, Bekerman reveals the complex school practices implemented while negotiating identity and culture in contexts of enduring conflict. Data gathered from interviews with teachers, students, parents, and state officials are presented and analyzed to explore the potential and limitations of peace education given the cultural resources, ethnic-religious affiliations, political beliefs, and historical narratives of the various interactants. The book concludes with critique of Western positivist paradigmatic perspectives that currently guide peace education, maintaining that one of the primary weaknesses of current bilingual and multicultural approaches to peace education is their failure to account for the primacy of the political framework of the nation state and the psychologized educational perspectives that guide their educational work. Change, it is argued, will only occur after these perspectives are abandoned, which entails critically reviewing present understandings of the individual, of identity and culture, and of the learning process.
More information about the book can be found at www.oup.com/us, Amazon.com, bn.com.
Phenomenological researchers generally agree that our central concern is to return to embodied, experiential meanings aiming for a fresh, complex, rich description of a phenomenon as it is concretely lived. Yet debates abound when it comes to deciding how best to carry out this phenomenological research in practice. Confusion about how to conduct appropriate phenomenological research makes our field difficult for novices to access. Six particular questions are contested: (1) How tightly or loosely should we define what counts as "phenomenology" (2) Should we always aim to produce a general (normative) description of the phenomenon, or is idiographic analysis a legitimate aim? (3) To what extent should interpretation be involved in our descriptions? (4) Should we set aside or bring to the foreground researcher subjectivity? (5) Should phenomenology be more science than art? (6) Is phenomenology a modernist or postmodernist project, or neither? In this paper, I examine each of these areas of contention in the spirit of fostering dialogue, and promoting openness and clarity in phenomenological inquiry.
This article explores the nexus between pre-service teacher education polices and the supply and demand of minority teachers. It problematizes the recent reports on teacher shortages in Israel, which tend to focus on the shortage of Jewish teachers while dealing with the surplus of Arab teachers only tangentially. Specifically, this article examines how teacher education policy in Israel generates a surplus supply of Arab teachers through 3 mechanisms: (a) the disregard for the cultural needs of Arab teachers and their exclusion from policymaking circles; (b) the Ministry of Education's budgeting criteria, which entice colleges to enroll more Arab students, especially when the enrollment of Jewish students is in decline; and (c) the admission policies of teacher education colleges, which contribute to the overrepresentation of Arab students in these colleges and allow the enrollment of students above the quota approved annually by the Ministry of Education.
This multiple case study examines how 4 social studies teachers in 2 private Islamic schools in Michigan understand the concept of citizenship education and the dilemmas they face in teaching for unity and diversity and in helping their students negotiate their civics identities within the American sociopolitical context. Data were collected through 2 in-depth semi-structured interviews. The study, which was conducted in 2010, reveals 3 dilemmas that Muslim social studies teachers handle in their classrooms. The first is how to find a balance between education for Islamic and American identities, given the increased Islam-phobia in the larger society and the lack of appropriate materials to show the contributions of Muslims to U.S. history and the world. The second dilemma involves the moral roots of teaching civics in Islamic schools and the contestation between moral absolutism and moral pluralism in the process of teaching for Islamic and democratic identities. Finally, social studies teachers in Islamic schools report that they deal with students’ confusion regarding American foreign policies and describe how they approach the tension between students’ national and transnational identities. This study adds to our understanding of the complexity of education for religious, national, and transnational identities and shows that citizenship education is influenced by sociopolitical contexts and discourses beyond the classroom setting.
Dialogue about social and political conflicts is a key element of democratic citizenship education that is frequently advocated in scholarship but rarely fully implemented, especially in classrooms populated by ethnically and economically heterogeneous students. Qualitative case studies describe the contrasting ways 2 primary and 2 middle-grade teachers in urban Canadian public schools infused conflict dialogue pedagogies into their implemented curricula. These lessons, introducing conflict communication skills and/or content knowledge embodying conflicting viewpoints as learning opportunities, actively engaged a wide range of students. At the same time, even these purposively selected teachers did not often facilitate sustained, inclusive, critical, and imaginative exchange or deliberation about heartfelt disagreements, nor did they probe the diversity and equity questions surrounding these issues. The case studies illustrate a democratic education dilemma: Even in the classrooms of skilled and committed teachers, opportunities for recognition of contrasting perspectives and discussion of social conflicts may not necessarily develop into sustained democratic dialogue nor interrupt prevailing patterns of disengagement and inequity.
In this article, I examine issues of identity, representation, multiculturalism, etc. as they relate to the Israeli context. I argue that, in order to move towards a sustainable peace in Israel, Israeli must become very critical of the dominant Western epistemologies. A radical change is needed in the way difference is perceived. Appreciating existing differences and histories in Israel can provide possibilities for enriching dialogue and occasion for collaboration.
This article questions the redeeming power of education and intergroup educational initiatives and their potential to contribute to coexistence and reconciliation. We critically analyze the apparent perspectives that guide intergroup educational initiatives today. We show these perspectives to rest on monological understandings of identity and culture and uncover their historical roots as they evolved within positivism and within the historical development of the nation-state. We posit that, as such, they stand little chance of serving as factors of change and can, for the most part, only support a reproductive mode. Finally, we consider educational approaches based on postpositivist realist perspectives, aided by liberatory pedagogies, as a possible new paradigm through which to approach educational work for coexistence.
Focusing on the Palestinian–Israeli case, this article critically reviews some central issues which burden the field of intergroup encounters. More specifically it considers some of their foundational historical and educational roots. I point to the reified concepts of self and identity, the history of schooling and its practices, and the coming into being of the political organization of nation-state which, though hidden from present theorizing, has a profound influence on the educational paradigms and strategies that guide intergroup encounters and their possible outcomes. Last, while considering post-national and post-positivist realist perspectives, I offer alternative educational options to strengthen the potential of intergroup encounters to support co-existence and reconcili-ation efforts given the critiques and paradigmatic dilemmas discussed.
Research in the field of intergroup relations has developed considerably over the last two decades, influenced by events and by the historical zeitgeist. We suggest applying an interactional way of dealing with intergroup encounters, which emphasizes the situational macro‐context (political, historical and social) in which the contact takes place. Employing this approach, the impact of the social‐political context on the characteristics of two encounters in which Jewish and Arab Israeli students met to deal with the Israeli–Arab political conflict was examined. The workshops took place within two completely different political contexts. The first workshop was at the time of peace talks, following the Oslo Accords (1996–1997), the second during the al‐Aksa Intifada (2001–2002). The discussions were recorded and fully transcribed. The two workshops were compared using a typology for classification of the developmental process of discourse between groups. The analysis revealed that during the peace talks ‘ethnocentric discourse’ was the dominant speech category, characterized by two monologues that do not meet. In the second workshop dialogic categories characterized by sharing of feelings, listening to the ‘other’ and making an effort to understand how reality looks from his/her perspective were salient. The research findings are discussed with regard to the paradoxical impact of the political–social context on discourse in small groups. The findings give a new understanding of the role of small intergroup meetings against the background of violent reality in an intractable conflict.
Coexistence is a state of mind shared by society members who recognize the rights of another group to exist peacefully as a legitimate, equal partner with whom disagreements have to be resolved in nonviolent ways. Achieving coexistence is a great challenge because of the negative relations between the two groups. These negative relations, the result of ethnocentric beliefs or intractable conflict, are widely shared and their abolition requires deep societal change. Education for coexistence plays an important function in this change. The article suggests that when negative relations are based on ethnocentrism, education for coexistence plays a major role in changing the nature of the relations. But when negative relations derive from intergroup conflict, education for coexistence has less influence.
Teachers work and live within unequal relations of power. Capitalism, patriarchy, racial or ethnic group stratification, authoritarian
religious or secular state formations, or imperialism are imbedded not only in local, national and global communities but
also in teachers' immediate work sites (classrooms and campuses) as well as in the educational system more generally. What
teachers do in and outside their workplaces is dialectically related to the distribution of both a) the material and symbolic
resources and b) the structural and ideological power used to control the means of producing, reproducing, consuming, and
accumulating material and symbolic resources.
Since the mid-1950s, and through both formal and informal means, American government has strived to promote tolerance and equality between races. Among the most obvious of these strategies have been policies and laws promoting desegregation in schools, neighborhoods, and elsewhere. Designed to provide equal access to education and shelter, they also allowed greater interracial contact in a sanction-free environment, ostensibly with the goal of promoting greater racial tolerance. It was believed that equal-status contact, particularly during the formative years, would engender more positive racial attitudes among young persons that would endure into adulthood. We test this assumption on 292 white adults participating in the 1991 Oklahoma City Survey. Findings show that childhood interracial contact in schools and neighborhoods not only disconfirms negative racial stereotypes, but has a direct, significant effect on levels of adult antiblack prejudice even controlling for other relevant factors. Results suggest continued support for the desegregation of American schools and neighborhoods as a means of promoting more positive racial attitudes through interracial contact.
Currently in the UK there is much pressure to increase the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority teachers, not only to respond to the continuing shortage, but to develop a teaching force that reflects the diversity in the UK population and provides role models for ethnic minority students. There is, however, little research on how ethnic minority teachers cope with the demands of the profession, especially in their first year. The introduction by the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) of an induction period for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in 1999 was an attempt to create a programme of individual support and monitoring to provide NQTs with a bridge from Initial Teacher Training (ITT) to becoming established in their chosen profession. We believe it is now timely and important to examine how ethnic minority beginning teachers experience these new arrangements. In this paper we, therefore, explore the induction experiences of British teachers of Asian and African Caribbean origin in three Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in the North West of England. We conclude that the NQTs are being provided with equal opportunities by their employers and that affirmative action may have been undertaken by a few of these employers during the recruitment and selection process, although some anecdotal evidence is also presented of discrimination. Further, the paper suggests that the majority of the NQTs find their schools and LEAs supportive and the induction process valuable, although it highlights the need for additional support in some individual cases.
Peace education in regions of intractable conflict faces a number of severe challenges, such as conflicting collective narratives, shared histories and beliefs, grave inequalities, excessive emotionality, and unsupportive social climates. In this light, the chances of success for peace education programs are rather slim. A series of quasi-experimental studies carried out with Israeli–Jewish and Palestinian youngsters revealed that despite the ongoing violence, participation in various programs yields positive attitudinal, perceptual, and relational changes manifested in, for example, more positive views of "peace," better ability to see the other side’s perspective, and greater willingness for contact. These changes depend on participants’ initial political views, and thus, as found in one study, play an attitude-reinforcing function, but, as found in another study, prevent the worsening of perceptions of and attribution to the other side, thereby serving in a preventive capacity.
The present article presents a meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. With 713 independent samples from 515 studies, the meta-analysis finds that intergroup contact typically reduces intergroup prejudice. Multiple tests indicate that this finding appears not to result from either participant selection or publication biases, and the more rigorous studies yield larger mean effects. These contact effects typically generalize to the entire outgroup, and they emerge across a broad range of outgroup targets and contact settings. Similar patterns also emerge for samples with racial or ethnic targets and samples with other targets. This result suggests that contact theory, devised originally for racial and ethnic encounters, can be extended to other groups. A global indicator of Allport's optimal contact conditions demonstrates that contact under these conditions typically leads to even greater reduction in prejudice. Closer examination demonstrates that these conditions are best conceptualized as an interrelated bundle rather than as independent factors. Further, the meta-analytic findings indicate that these conditions are not essential for prejudice reduction. Hence, future work should focus on negative factors that prevent intergroup contact from diminishing prejudice as well as the development of a more comprehensive theory of intergroup contact.
Promoting civil awareness through discussion of controversial topics is one of the important and challenging roles teachers have. The study examined the way 1,621 Israeli teachers handled the sensitive topic of Jewish-Arab relations. Teachers who knew the Ministry of Education policy regarding political discussions, who felt they would be supported in case of a complaint, who believed that promoting civic education was part of their role as teachers, who had higher self-efficacy in holding discussions, and who had undergone multicultural training in the past five years were more likely to report discussions. Implications for teacher education and policy are discussed.
The present book engages with the phenomenon of protracted occupation, which it perceives as both attention-grabbing and puzzling in the 21st century, an era in which it has become an exceptional and very rare phenomenon. The analysis begins with a view which suggests that occupation, by its very nature, has in most cases acquired a negative connotation because in the great majority of cases it is carried out coercively, against the will of the occupied population. In the discourse on this phenomenon, therefore, the focus of the interest is frequently on the occupied society, became it bears the very heavy tangible and intangible burdens of the occupation. Indeed there is growing literature on this issue. It is consequently requisite upon us also to analyze the relatively neglected effects of the occupation on the occupying society, effects that are not always explicit and easily observed. The present book focuses on a particular case of prolonged occupation - that of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel following the Six Day War in 1967. Of importance for us is the fact that since 1967 Israel has been occupying Palestinian territories and the Palestinian population has been living for over four decades under this occupation. We focus on the relative gap in the interactive analysis in the context of occupation - the effects of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and of the Palestinian people, on the State of Israel and its society. The consequences of the occupation are felt in wide range of aspects of life from political, societal, legal and economic to cultural and psychological.
The SAGE Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Democracy brings together new work by some of the leading authorities on citizenship education, and is divided into five sections. The first section deals with key ideas about citizenship education including democracy, rights, globalization and equity. Section two contains a wide range of national case studies of citizenship education including African, Asian, Australian, European and North and South American examples. The third section focuses on perspectives about citizenship education with discussions about key areas such as sustainable development, anti-racism, and gender. Section four provides insights into different characterizations of citizenship education with illustrations of democratic schools, peace and conflict education, global education, human rights education etc. The final section provides a series of chapters on the pedagogy of citizenship education with discussions about curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment.
Arguing that a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict depends on a resolution of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict within Israel as much as it does on resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, this timely book explores the causes and consequences of the growing conflict between Israel's Jewish majority and its Palestinian-Arab minority. It warns that if Jewish-Arab relations in Israel continue to deteriorate, this will pose a serious threat to the stability of Israel, to the quality of Israeli democracy, and to the potential for peace in the Middle East. The book examines the views and attitudes of both the Palestinian minority and the Jewish majority, as well as the Israeli state's historic approach to its Arab citizens. Drawing upon the experience of other states with national minorities, the authors put forward specific proposals for safeguarding and enhancing the rights of the Palestinian minority while maintaining the country's Jewish identity.
The aim of this chapter is to analyze how Israeli Arab and Jewish students who study in a conflict resolution course at university coped with their divergent and emotional reactions and complicated experiences, identities and competing loyalties during the Gaza war of 2008-9. Through an analysis of this specific case study, this chapter aims to shed light on the complex phenomenon of human interactions during a period of heightened tension. The principal aim of the conflict resolution course is to encourage coexistence among the various groups comprising Israeli society in an atmosphere of cooperation, mutual understanding and social tolerance. It enables Israeli Arab and Jewish students to reflect productively on their place and role in a diverse society in an educational environment that respects difference. The three-part program, designed for small groups of 20-25 students, consists of twelve weekly 1½-hour sessions offering hands-on learning, based on the personal experiences of its participants. It provides students with skills and techniques to enable them to operate within a multicultural context and to function within it as agents of change. Exercises are derived from the Anti-Defamation League’s “A World of Difference” program, adapted to the needs of students experiencing the complex realities of the state of Israel. This chapter will present the reactions of Israeli Jewish and Arab students to a specific incident that occurred during a university workshop that took place during the Gaza war and show how management of the conflict operates in practice in a unique, fragile moment where life cannot be taken for granted.
The objective of this section of the introduction is to describe and analyse the place of the component of contestation in the discourse of conflict education. First Judaism’s approach to disagreements and contestation between different and opposing opinions is presented, which is pivotal to conflict discourse in Israel and for Jews worldwide, and can serve as a starting point for debate as to its wider relevance. The discussion then broadens out to examine several factors that accelerate the contestation component in educational discourse in conflict regions more generally. A critical analysis is performed of research studies that have explored the nature of discourse between conflict groups, and their failure to address contestation is discussed. Finally the development of a culture of contestation in educational research and practice is proposed.
Cover Blurb: Researching Lived Experience introduces an approach to qualitative research methodology in education and related fields that is distinct from traditional approaches derived from the behavioral or natural sciences—an approach rooted in the “everyday lived experience” of human beings in educational situations. Rather than relying on abstract generalizations and theories, van Manen offers an alternative that taps the unique nature of each human situation.
The book offers detailed methodological explications and practical examples of hermeneutic-phenomenological inquiry. It shows how to orient oneself to human experience in education and how to construct a textual question which evokes a fundamental sense of wonder, and it provides a broad and systematic set of approaches for gaining experiential material that forms the basis for textual reflections.
Van Manen also discusses the part played by language in educational research, and the importance of pursuing human science research critically as a semiotic writing practice. He focuses on the methodological function of anecdotal narrative in human science research, and offers methods for structuring the research text in relation to the particular kinds of questions being studied. Finally, van Manen argues that the choice of research method is itself a pedagogic commitment and that it shows how one stands in life as an educator.
The aim of this study was to examine how Muslim Arab-Israeli teachers conceptualize the Israeli-Arab conflict with their students. The findings show that Arab schools are in a constant state of tension between opposing poles of identity and belonging. The teachers emphasize their students' alienation from the Israeli establishment and their lack of identification with the Jewish state, while expressing deep identification with the Palestinian people. They are able to cope with this split by seeking contents and coping mechanisms of a universal nature that are not in dispute, and which enable students to repress the dissonance in which they live.
The aim of this article is to analyze how a facilitator of a conflict resolution course can encourage productive active participation and interaction between rival groups during the workshops and how does s/he cope with situations where the group does not cooperate. One successful approach
is make some outlandish statements as a systematic and planned activity, so that s/he becomes the common enemy of the whole group. Following Yin (2003, 2004) this article will analyze one case study and show how the process operates in practice.
This review focuses on the experiences of minority group teachers as they move into teacher credential programs and then into the teaching profession. Research reports published between 1989 and 1998 were considered if they focused on the experiences of preservice and in-service minority group teachers in public school contexts. After a descriptive synthesis provides a snap-shot of the actual experiences of minority group teachers in schooling, a social justice framework is used to guide teacher educators and school-based professionals in their construction of robust recruitment and retention programs. This review demonstrates the power of the presence of minority group teachers but also demonstrates the obstacles to full realization of their potential. Perhaps the opportunity to imagine the possibilities of schooling in the context of making a real difference in students' lives is the catalyst minority group people need to enter and remain in the teaching profession.
The central assumption of phenomenological and related approaches holds that the possibility of mutual understanding and communication in interpersonal relations in contingent on the supposition of the sameness of self and other. Under this assumption, the otherness of the other is conceived as an obstacle to achieving mutual understanding. Thus, the categories of stranger and strangeness are not considered constitutive of interpersonal communication and, consequently, are analyzed either in terms of social role or as a methodological device. The present paper examines this assumption by focusing on the process of "making the other strange," which involves the disengagement of the other's presence from his or her familiar, taken-for-granted identity. The other is thereby rendered. "other," that is, opaque and irreducible in his individuality. This suspension of the taken-for-granted understanding opens up the possibility of a creative and critical search to understand the other and allows distinguishing among selves. Without this possibility, the picture of interpersonal communication remains incomplete. The discussion of the principles underlying this process and of its implications for an analytical account of interaction is followed by examples from everyday occurences of making strange.
The paper examines the relationship between self and society from an interactionist approach, within the context of intergroup encounters. One of the main dilemmas found in intergroup encounters is the tension that exists between the salience of the group identity versus personal and interpersonal dimensions. We suggest applying an interactionist approach to dealing with this debate, which emphasizes the situation in which the contact takes place. From this approach, the use of different types of intergroup encounters is discussed by comparing two types of workshops in which Jewish and Arab Israeli students met to work on the Israeli-Arab political conflict. The research questions are analyzed in regard to topics that are central to the Jewish-Arab conflict, such as the Holocaust and Al-Nakba (the Arab epithet for the 1948 war). This paper was written before the present crisis (2000/2002) in Jewish-Palestinian relations .
This paper considers the school experiences of a small group of black and other minority ethnic student teachers in the UK at key points during their postgraduate initial teacher education (secondary) course. Their views are examined against the backdrop of the continuing stated need to increase numbers entering the teaching profession from black and other minority backgrounds.
the purpose of this chapter is to discuss and evaluate interethnic contact as a means of bringing young people from hostile nationalities in one country to live in mutual understanding and respect / the presentation will focus on Arab and Jewish youth living in Israel, with an emphasis on the unique characteristics of intergroup relationship prevailing in that country (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Most of the subjects concerned with Israel, such as the location of the military and militaristic culture, are heavily distorted in comparison to other themes prevalant in the discourse and the debates in the social sciences, very much like the other issues linked with the Jewish-Arab conflict and Jewish-Arab relations (Kimmerling, 1992). Ideological and value loaded considerations blur the issue, making even the usage of the term ‘militarism’ in the canonical textbooks a taboo in Israel. The main purpose of this paper is three-fold: 1) to present a brief survey of the present state of the literature on so-called ‘civil-military relations’ in Israel, from which 2) a revision can be made of the overall impact of the Jewish-Arab conflict and the militarization of Israeli society. This will be followed by 3) a reformulation of the effect of militarization on the institutional and value spheres of the Israeli collectivity.
We propose that following a victimization episode, victims experience an enhanced need for power, whereas perpetrators experience an enhanced need for social acceptance. We present the needs-based model of reconciliation, according to which the reciprocal satisfaction of these needs may lead to improved relations between victims and perpetrators. We then use the model as an organizing framework for reviewing theories and empirical findings within the field of victim/perpetrator dynamics in general and reconciliation in particular. We also examine its applicability to various contexts including interpersonal and intergroup conflicts and conflicts between majority and minority groups within the same society. Finally, we conclude by discussing policy implications drawn from the model.
The killing of thirteen Arabs by Israeli police forces in October 2000 points to the mounting tension and hostility between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Encounter and coexistence programs constitute one of the few channels for the development of communication, trust, and genuine understanding of the complex Arab-Jewish reality in Israel. Thus, it is essential that these encounters be examined and professionally developed to respond to the needs of the two communities. This article examines certain shortcomings of these encounter programs and provides suggestions to improve their efficacy. The conclusions are based on an earlier empirical study conducted between 1992 and 1998, which investigated six encounter programs, and on a series of interviews with Arab-Jewish facilitators conducted in 2001.
This article presents a paradigm of process evaluation of intergroup contact interventions that has two objectives: (a) to classify intergroup encounters by their ideology and (b) to define and apply criteria that evaluate the quality of intergroup interaction, focusing on symmetry between members of both groups in active participation in the encounter. This paradigm was applied to evaluate 47 encounters programs between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs that were classified into two major approaches—those that emphasize coexistence and similarities between the sides and those that emphasize conflict and confrontation. Equality in participation of Jewish and Arab participants was found in the vast majority (89%) of programs. However, symmetry between Jewish and Arab facilitators varied and was higher in programs including confrontational elements.
In the past few decades, planned contact interventions between groups in conflict have played an important role in attempts at improving intergroup relations and achieving peace and reconciliation. This article focuses on such reconciliation-aimed intergroup encounters between Israeli Jews and Palestinians that seek to reduce hostility and increase understanding and cooperation between the two nationalities. Like other contact interventions conducted in settings of intergroup conflict, encounters between Israeli Jews and Palestinians represent a paradoxical project: this is a project that aspires to generate equality and cooperation between groups that are embedded in a protracted asymmetrical conflict. Though existing research teaches us valuable lessons on the effectiveness of contact conducted under optimal conditions, little is said about contact between groups involved in asymmetrical protracted dispute. The goal of this analysis is to examine the evolution of reconciliation-aimed contact interventions between Israeli Jews and Palestinians in the past 20 years. The research method is qualitative, relying on ethnographic data assembled during the relevant period of time. The findings identify and trace the evolution of four major models of Jewish-Palestinian planned encounters: the Coexistence Model, the Joint Projects Model, the Confrontational Model, and the Narrative-Story-Telling Model. The strengths and limitations of each model in transforming intergroup attitudes in asymmetric conflict are discussed.
The cultural political struggles of five female teachers in a heavily populated minority urban school in Southern California depicts bothsimilarity anddifference. Similarly, each teacher struggles to help overcome her own and students' oppression, subordination, and alienation. Through understandingsimilarity, different teacher and student voices make understanding the other easier. It is argued that understanding similarity within difference opens space for a democratic imaginary, that, while not clearly articulated at any one moment, acts to variously challenge the oppressive forces existing within and outside of schools.
It is important, at the outset, to recognize what naturalistic inquiry is and what it is not. Naturalistic inquiry is a paradigm of inquiry; that is, a pattern or model for how inquiry may be conducted. While it is frequently asserted that its distinguishing features are: that it is carried out in a natural setting (and hence the term naturalistic), that it utilizes a case-study format, and that it relies heavily on qualitative rather than quantitative methods, none of these features define naturalistic inquiry. While all of these assertions are essentially correct, no one of them, nor indeed all of them together, capture the full significance of the term paradigm. Paradigms differ from one another on matters much more fundamental than the locale in which the inquiry is conducted, the format of the inquiry report, or the nature of the methods used. Paradigms are axiomatic systems characterized by their differing sets of assumptions about the phenomena into which they are designed to inquire.
A case study of teacher candidates from three ethnic groups—Asian American, African-American, and Hispanic—in a state university in the U.S. reveal both similarities and differences in views on teaching as a profession and as a career between these students and their mainstream—white/Caucasian—peers. While the majority of the candidates under the study are proud of becoming members of the teaching profession, only one third of them plan to take teaching as a lifelong career. Emotional aspects (stress, frustration) appear to be the major cause for white teachers to leave the profession whereas the minority candidates are more likely to leave teaching when there are opportunities for them to do something else more rewarding. Although all the prospective teachers entered teaching for traditional altruistic reasons, the minority candidates were also motivated by their awareness of the inequalities in the existing educational and social establishments. Therefore, many minority candidates have clear and strong visions for social justice and for their own roles as change agents in the schools and society. Most of the white students, on the other hand, do not have these visions largely because of their optimal prior schooling experiences. It is argued that the minority candidates should be considered as the most important resource in restructuring teacher education programs and that efforts should be made to recruit and retain more qualified minority teachers in the teaching profession.
This paper presents an analysis of the group process in encounters between Jewish and Palestinian Israeli citizens by using a typology for discourse classification. The typology presented here is a sensitive research tool that was developed in the absence of existing instruments, which analyze the developmental process of discourse in groups. It is an instrument that can help in conceptualizing and analyzing the process occurring in face-to-face encounters between representatives of groups in conflict. Inter-group encounters are seen as a developmental process. In this paper, development is defined as changes in the quality of discourse, progressing on a scale from the lowest point—“ethnocentric talk”, to the highest point—“dialogic moment”. Progress is transition from discourse based on stereotypes, not listening to the other, and perceiving the other as an object for persuasion to dialogue characterized by equality, listening, trying to understand reality from the other's point of view, and a joint effort in construction of meaning. The study is based on the assumption that change in the quality of discourse is a sign of a cognitive and affective change in the way one perceives the “other”, the “self” and “truth”, which enables the parties to engage in dialogue and achieve understanding. The categories, which distinguish among types of discourse, grew out of text analysis based on the Hermeneutic Case Reconstruction method (The narrative study of lives. Sage 1(1) (1993) 59). The article demonstrates the use of this typology in analyzing examples from the discourse, which took place over the course of 1 yr at Ben-Gurion University in Israel.
This study investigated the differential effects of intercultural acquaintance (based on informal and sporadic contact with members of the other culture) and structured intergroup interaction on group perceptions. Jewish American youngsters visiting Israel were asked to rate “a typical Jewish Israeli teenager” (outgroup stereotype), “a typical Jewish American teenager” (ingroup stereotype), and “a typical Jewish American teenager as seen by a typical Jewish Israeli teenager” (reflected ingroup stereotype), on personal and ideological characteristics. The questionnaires were administered soon after their arrival, and three weeks later; at the latter time, some of the respondents had participated in a structured intergroup encounter with Israeli peers, while the others had not yet done so. Findings regarding initial group attitudes show a tendency to perceive the outgroup less favorably than the ingroup on the personal scale, while a reverse pattern was obtained on the ideological scale. Following the intercultural experience, outgroup perceptions changed in the direction of the ingroup evaluations, regardless of participation in the structured intergroup encounter. Before the intercultural contact, the Jewish American respondents attributed to the other group markedly low evaluations of Jewish American teenagers on both dimensions; these reflected ingroup perceptions became more favorable only following the intergroup interaction. It is suggested that a process of recategorization, in which common ingroup identities are made salient without suppressing the existing group categorizations, may operate in the intergroup encounters and may partially account for the changes in group perceptions.
Obra sobre las características y métodos de la investigación cualitativa, desde la planeación del proyecto hasta la interpretación del material. Incluye un panorama sobre los desarrollos recientes en la materia.